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James Harrison, 1st Earl Harrison
'James Steven Harrison OBE '(born February 6, 1996) is an English singer-songwriter. Harrison was first discovered in 2010 in London by Robbie Williams, who discovered the then 14 year old performing in the British capital. Williams introduced Harrison to Virgin EMI executive Richard Branson and signed him to EMI Records. He released his debut studio album'' Listen in August 2012 after beginning the recording in mid-2011. The album was almost entirely done by Harrison himself, except his number one hit "Payphone" that was a collaboration with American rapper Wiz Khalifa. The album was certified twenty times platinum in the UK, indicating at least 6,000,000 sales and was certified seventeen times platinum in the US (17,000,000 sales). It also sold 5 million sales in Japan making it the ninth selling of all-time in Japan and the best-selling by a non-Japanese artist. He would follow this up with his 2013 album ''Apocalypse ''which also saw high sales worldwide to date around 5,100,000 in the UK and 13,000,000 in the US. He also released a cover album of Michael Jackson's songs entitled ''The King ''in 2014 this was his highest praised album, it saw worldwide sales of 22 million within six months of its release. Following this he released ''Xscape ''despite not earning anywhere near the sales the previous albums had it only took five weeks to surpass 1 million sales in the UK. To date he has earned ten number one albums and a record twenty-three number one singles. Harrison's first two studio albums won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, these are two of nine Grammy's he has won in total. To date he has had 140 million album sales and around 130 million single sales which would rank him as one of the best-selling artists of all-time. He achieved 14 UK number one singles in 2014 alone, with "Love Runs Out" selling over 1 million copies in both of its first two weeks and with 5.45 million it is the best-selling single in the UK and "Hands Held High" also reached 5 million sales in February 2015, it now has 5.22 million sales in the UK alone. In February 2015 Harrison's single "Hands Held High" became his second single to spend at least ten weeks at number one, making him the only person to achieve this feat. He also announced on February 27, 2015 that he had signed with RCA Records whilst remaining with EMI. Career 2011–12: Beginnings and ''Listen After signing for EMI Records in 2011 Harrison began recording he debut album stating that it would be a pop rock genre of album vagly similar to Maroon 5. Harrison had to mix in GCSE's with the recording of the album and said that was the reason the album took 14 months to record. Harrison said the writing of the album was quite easy and took less than a month but juggling GCSE's and recording was difficult. He said it was difficult to keep it secret from people at his school. A week prior to the release of his debut single "Lucky Strike" he previewed it to his school year group. He said in an interview that he was proud of the album and he planned to release several singles. In the recording despite constant efforts Harrison had no help at all other than on the recording "Payphone" which featured vocals from rapper Wiz Khalifa. This would also be his second single from the album. The album was released in August 2012, by this point he had already released four singles earning himself three number one singles only "One More Night" failed to reach the summit of the UK charts peaking at number two. The album was a huge commercial succes selling 6 million copies in the UK alone and an estimate 50 million worldwide. It earned 5 million sales in Japan becoming the third best-selling of all-time in Japan and the best-selling in the country by a foriegn artist. Its 50 million sales ranks it as the joint second best-selling album of all-time, joint with Back to Black by AC/DC and The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and behind only Thriller ''(65m) by Michael Jackson. The 6 million sales in the UK ranks it joint best-selling in the UK with ''Greatest Hits ''by Queen. After its release Harrison released a further three singles all reached the top three and the final single "Wipe Your Eyes" remains his best-selling single with around 22.5 million worldwide sales and is the most downloaded track of all-time with around 18.9 million downloads. The album received ten Grammy Award nominations and it won all the awards, making it the most honored album in Grammy Awards history. "Wipe Your Eyes" collected three of these awards. 2013: ''Apocalypse and global super stardom Around a month after the recording of Listen ''was completed Harrison began writing for a follow up album. He began recording November 2012 and released the first song from the album "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" in April 2013. Two days after the released Harrison announced he has called the album ''Apocalypse and had a planned release date of October 20, 2013. In an interview with Jay Leno he said he was to work with Adele and Beyoncé on the recording of two songs. He also confirmed in the writing he would be working with Justin Timberlake, Paul Epworth, Gary Barlow, Leona Lewis, R. Kelly and Taio Cruz along with Adele and Beyoncé. He released "Recovery" as a second single in June, the song reached number one on the UK charts after "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Loves You" reached number two. He released the album on the planned date of October 20 and also his song "Certain Things" on the same date which was a collaboration with Beyoncé. This reached number one in the UK and US. He also stated that he would released "Smoke Clouds" and "Emergency" at towards the end of 2013. This album made Harrison a super star worldwide as his previous album he made him big worldwide, this made him huge. This album was also highly honored at the 2014 Grammy Awards picking up seven awards from nine nominations. "Recovery" also picked up two wins from its three nominations, yet again he won Best Music Video for "Emergency". He won for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album, non-classical. 2014: The King, Rock Covers ''and ''Xscape Harrison began 2014 by announcing he had recorded a cover album of Michael Jackson's songs, and its lead single "Bad" was to be released on January 2. The album was released on February 9 and debuted at number one and following its release it was highly praised critics as his best albums ever and one of the best ever albums. To date he has released eight singles and all have reached number one. The album was highly successful reaching number one every where it was released. To date it has sold over a million copies in Canada, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. "Man in the Mirror" is the best selling single from the album with worldwide sales of around 12.5 million. In April 2014 he announced plans to record and release a cover album of Love songs in late 2014. He will release an album in 2015 which is an original album entitled Electric Pulse. ''After releasing the eight singles from ''The King album he released a cover of Creed's "With Arms Wide Open" in April 2014. In April 2014 he released a six-track EP Rock Covers from which he released covers of "With Arms Wide Open" and Linkin Park's "Powerless". This album debuted at number one on the UK albums chart making Harrison only the second artist after The Beatles to replace themselves on the UK albums chart. He announced that he would release a fourth album towards the end of 2014 entitled Xscape ''which will see him revert to pop rock with a Michael Jackson feel to it. 2015: ''Into the Abyss, Electric Pulse ''and a transition into rock and hip hop In May 2014 Harrison announced he was recorded a fifth studio album[[ Electric Pulse| ''Electric Pulse]] he said that this album would be completely different to anything that he had ever done before as it would be recorded in a rock/nu metal genre. The album which is set for release in early 2015 was finished in late July 2014 and contains twelve tracks and features the likes of Rakim, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Dave Grohl, he also worked alongside Metallica in songwriting. He did state it wouldn't be permanent and that a cover album of his favourite songs which saw him make a transition into hip hop. He was originally to record Simply the Best ''a cover of many different song but this was scrapped in favour of ''Into the Abyss an original pop album and instead of that being released in November and Electric Pulse ''in February the release dates were switched around. At the end of November 2014 ''V ''was renamed ''Into the Abyss ''as Harrison believed calling your fifth album V was to cliched. On the New Years Honours list released on December 31, 2014 Harrison was awarded an OBE following his 15 number ones in 2014, overtaking Elvis' record of number ones and his £50 million charity donations during 2014. His album ''Into the Abyss ''sold in excess of 2 million copies in its opening week, he would on February 27, 2015 sign a record deal with RCA Records but stated he would remain with EMI Records. He is also set to sign with Asylum Records as well and will release ''Empirical ''on these Asylum and RCA. He will release ''#1's ''in June 2015 which will feature the theme track for WrestleMania 31, "Day of the Dead" which will feature Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington. Public Image General Harrison has for a long time believed that he should act in a professional way and as a role model should, but had said he does have spells where he will lash out. He has regularly said that there is no point dressing like most other singers his sort of age does and they are aiming to become popular with younger girls, he believes that he should be casual with appearance and is popular with a much wider age range. He would regularly reject the label teen heartthrob as thats not what he's about, he also has steered clear of the teen pop genre that many other artists in the 18 to 24 age bracket dip into, as he wants to be popular with all age ranges. Harrison has remained in good light with the worlds public throughout 2014 despite lashing out at the likes of Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne physically. In the week after he punched Justin Bieber on the streets of Los Angeles his twitter followers increased by over 9 million. Voice and Influences Harrison had always been regarded as different in his voice as a teen due to his much deeper voice, but a hidden talent became evident in his third studio album as he proved he could hit notes most male singers would never get near. He is known to possess a seven-octave vocal range, which is believed to the third biggest range in the world only bettered by Georgia Brown (eight-octave) and Tim Storms (ten-octave). Harrison has said he has been influenced by R. Kelly, Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Dr. Dre, N.W.A., Linkin Park, Nirvana, Metallica, Nickelback and Maroon 5. Discography ''or List of songs recorded by James Harrison Studio albums *''Listen'' (2012) *''Apocalypse'' (2013) *''The King'' (2014) *''Xscape'' (2014) *''Into the Abyss'' (2015) *''Electric Pulse'' (2015) *''Evolution (2016) EPs *Rock Covers (2014) *Rock Covers: Volume 2 (2015) *Rock Covers: Volume 3 ''(2016) Filmography Personal Life Harrison did date American TV personality Kylie Jenner, they broke up in February 2014 following rumours he had been secretly dating her older sister Kendall. Around a month after the break up he was seen with Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard, he did confirm they were dating a while later. Harrison announced in late January 2015 that he and Bouchard had broken up due to personal issues. Around 6 days after the break up Harrison announced that he was know dating the sister of his ex-girlfriend Kylie Jenner, the pair had previously been dating during Harrison's time with Kylie. After cracks in his relationship with Kendall Jenner arose Harrison admitted they had split up. Around two weeks later he confirmed he was dating American actress Danielle Campbell. Since rising to fame Harrison has had numerous feuds with different artists, most notably with Justin Bieber. He also stated that he wanted to find musical talent on YouTube and by scouting. See Also *List of James Harrison feuds Category:James Harrison Category:1996 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century English singers Category:Brit Award winners Category:English singers Category:English songwriters Category:English pop singers Category:English R&B singers Category:English alternative rock singers Category:English nu metal singers Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English people of American descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:EMI Records artists Category:People from Burton upon Trent Category:English billionaires Category:Singers with a six-octave or greater vocal range